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Highest Advisor Satisfaction Reported By Wealthiest Investors

10/15/2014

Advisor satisfaction among the wealthiest investors continues to be the highest.

Spectrem’s quarterly research in its Wealth Segmentation Series – Relationships with Advisors – details the rise in satisfaction among all investors at all wealth levels, although there are significant statistical differences in the level of increase based primarily on age and level of wealth.

The research examined the relationships with advisors in three unique wealth segments: Mass Affluent (with a net worth of between $100,000 to $1 million Not Including Primary Residence), Millionaire (net worth between $1 million and $5 million NIPR) and Ultra High Net Worth ($5 million to $25 million NIPR).

Overall advisor satisfaction is highest among UHNW investors, and is at 77 percent. That’s an increase of 5 percent since the year 2009.

Satisfaction among Millionaires increased slightly from 70 to 74 percent among Millionaires, and increased from 61 to 69 percent among Mass Affluent investors.

While in some cases the year-to-year improvement is slight, the overall satisfaction from 2009 to 2014 has gone up nearly 10 percent, from 61 percent to 69 percent among Mass Affluent investors, and from 72 to 77 percent among UHNW investors. The wealthiest investors also report the greatest appreciation for advisor performance in 2014, with 73 percent.

Asked whether they are more satisfied with their advisor than in the past, 38 percent of UHNW investors said yes, 38 percent of Millionaires agreed and 36 percent of Mass Affluent investors agreed.

The greatest level of satisfaction in terms of specific advisor performance is in responsiveness to requests. Seventy-four percent of Mass Affluent investors, 80 percent of Millionaire investors and 83 percent of UHNW investors are satisfied with the responsiveness of their advisors. Unique to that statistic is that the satisfaction among Millionaire investors is actually down 2 percent from the level it was at in 2009, when satisfaction about responsiveness was at 82 percent.